‘Very scary time for young men in America’: Donald Trump feeds off male resentment against #MeToo brigade as midterm elections loom

New York: With 34 days to go before the 2018 midterm elections which decides political control of America’s legislative branch, US President Donald Trump is turning the Brett Kavanaugh chaos into a wild west fight against the threat of false accusers in the wake of the #MeToo movement. In doing so, Trump is feeding off the explosion of male resentment that is only growing in the wake of a college professor’s allegations against Trump’s Supreme Court pick which has now turned into a national circus. [caption id=“attachment_5304581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  US president Donald Trump back on the campaign trail Monday. AP[/caption] In the 2016 election, Trump won 53 percent of men compared with Hillary Clinton’s 41 percent. Against the backdrop of breathless reporting on the women’s vote and what it means in the midterms, Trump is seeking to fire up ‘inelastic’ voters who turned up for him in 2016 and continue to feel threatened by an entirely new set of social circumstances that may have little to do with why they voted Trump two years ago. “It’s a very scary time for young men in America”, Trump told reporters in Maryland as he scored goals on both sides over the ongoing FBI probe into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. “What’s happening here has much more to do than the appointment of a Supreme Court judge. You could be perfect your whole life and then someone comes around and accuses you.Now, you’re guilty until proven innocent”, Trump said. “The trauma for a man that’s never had any accusation — he’s never had a bad statement about him,” Trump said, sympathizing with Kavanaugh’s experience. “It’s unfair to him at this point. What his wife is going through, what his beautiful children are going through is not describable.” For those of us bingewatching the Trump method, this is straight out of the classic Trump playbook that goes back to the 2016 campaign. On most issues, Trump remains in a place where he can pivot either way if the mood sours. Trump’s biggest supporter inside his family Donald Trump Jr played the same tune in an interview aired Monday: “I’ve got boys and I’ve got girls, and when I see what’s going on right now, it’s scary.” Asked whether he was more worried about his sons or daughters, Trump Jr. said, “Right now, I’d say my sons.” “If Kavanaugh lied, it’s terrible…unacceptable”, Donald Trump said - and that’s a long way from his unequivocal support for the nominee a few weeks ago. On the same day, he’s also hailed Kavanaugh as a “fine man”. Doesn’t really matter what any of that means because the new crisis has just given Trump a surprise gift to brandish against the #MeToo moment. By praising Kavanaugh’s accuser Chistine Blasey Ford as a “fine woman” and a “very credible witness”, Trump has positioned himself in a sweet spot ahead of FBI returning the Kavanaugh dossier to him this week. Asked whether he had a message for American women, Trump said: “Women are doing great”. The party of Republicans, largely represented in American politics by white men, is feeling the burn of the Kavanaugh impasse more intensely as elections near. Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has made a name for himself as flagbearer for white male identity in America, unloaded on what he calls “militant feminism” after the dramatic Kavanaugh hearing. “These women are angry,” Limbaugh said. “Something has happened to them in their lives, and their rage and anger, they take it out now on the country or on all men or men in ’the powerful majority’, which is white Christian men and so forth’. MensRights is a 189,000 subscribers and growing group on the hugely popular online discussion website reddit.com. Whether online or offline, the resistance to the rogue elements unleashed by #MeToo is real and palpable. “It’s about time”, say multiple male professionals in IT and banking Firstpost spoke with this week after Kavanaugh’s testimony and immediately after Trump’s comments today. “We deal with this fear at work everyday, it’s good that people in power, like Trump, become the voice of resistance. It’s another big win for him, and a semblance of protection for us. Anything we say can or do can be twisted by women we work with. It’s bizarre.”